Monday, June 30, 2008

Blue Sky at Last

You can't imagine how monochromatic the past week has been. You can't imagine what it's like to spend a summer day shut up in your house with all the doors and windows closed against the smog and smoke.

Today the air is sparkling clear, and the sky is strangely blue. To celebrate, I set up the solar oven and baked a loaf of bread.

It's not that the fires are out--123 fires are still burning in Mendocino County. I think it's just that the wind has shifted. Last week's offshore winds came from the North and East. Now the wind is coming from the ocean, blowing the smoke into the central valley instead of south to Sonoma County. The lightning strikes that were expected on Saturday and Sunday were postponed until today, but apparently have hit mainly in the Sierra, where there are new fires today.

And here in the North Bay, today's 89-percent humidity (compared with last week's 13 percent) have made it a lot harder for new fires to get started. Unfortunately, there's a long, hot, dry summer ahead of us, with dry lightning becoming even more likely in July and August.

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About Me

I'm interested in what grows between the paving stones of received wisdom. I like to see what happens when people of differing opinion engage in respectful dialogue. There's not enough of that. I like to look at ordinary events and ask questions about why they are so. I try to spend some time really listening to trees and other silent things. I think about happiness, and the things people do to try to achieve it. What is happiness, and how do you know if you're happy? What are people really seeking when they seek happiness? For me, real happiness most often seems to come from doing something, however laughable, to make the world a better place. And, of course, reading the Funny Times